Fórum Oceano, the Portuguese National Hub, presented the Initiative WestMED during the event ‘Feira do Mar’, that took place in Sines, Alentejo, Portugal, from the 12 to the 14 July 2019.

The presentation occurred in the framework of a Conference focused on Maritime Commerce: From Sines (Portugal) to the World, with the presence of Portuguese stakeholders, namely representatives of Associations, Port Authorities, the National Maritime Authority, Public Administration, Companies, Universities and R&D Centres.

Fórum Oceano aimed at explaining the Initiative’ s goals and implementation, giving some information about the activities held and the next steps. This presentation had the support of Sines Tecnopolo, regional stakeholder that is involved in WestMED.

Besides the presentation, the Initiative WestMED was also represented at the exhibition area, at the Fórum Oceano’ s booth.

The Italian National Hub took the occasion of the first edition of the Croatian Conference on Blue Growth, held under the patronage of European Commission DG MARE on the 6-8 June in Rijeka – Croatia, to present the WestMED Initiative, to establish a strategic partnership between SEAFUTURE and ADRIA4BLUE, and to join some important seminars on the role of Maritime Clusters, and on Clean Transport and Alternative Fuels.

The important role of the Kingdom of Norway, co-organizer of the event through its Embassy in Zagreb and Innovation Norway has given also the possibility to establish useful contacts with the Norwegian experience in sustainable maritime transport.

REGISTRATION

Organisers aim to keep, to the best level possible, equilibrium between applicants from different countries and organisations by screening registration requests before accepting them. You are kindly requested to limit participation to maximum two people per organisation.Organisers reserve the right to refuse registrations if there are too many participants from the same organisation/institution. Priority will be given to those who register early.

Only one e-mail address per participant can be registered in the system. You are free to choose the sessions you are interested in and design your own programme.

MATCHMAKING

From 3 July onwards, you will have the option to schedule bilateral meetings and present your interests in certain topics, your expertise on specific matters and/or your project ideas to possible project partners.

A matchmaking event is a quick and easy way to meet potential cooperation partners to judge a possible future collaboration. People meet and greet at high speed. A few minutes are usually enough to build connections, then the bell rings and the next meeting starts.

Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, who is representing the Commission at the conference, said: “Fisheries are a source of food and livelihoods for thousands in the Mediterranean. This is why two years ago, together with our partners, we delivered the MedFish4Ever Declaration setting political commitments to turn around the struggling and critical state of most fish stocks. We have made significant and concrete progress towards delivering our ambition to achieve sustainable fisheries. We must keep up the direction and the speed, committing to do even more in the coming years”.

Adopted in 2017, the Declaration sets in motion a new drive towards sustainable development of Mediterranean fisheries and aquaculture. Riparian countries have committed to a roadmap with concrete actions for the coming 10 years, and significant progress has since been achieved, including ambitious fisheries management measures, protection of biodiversity, improved research and control, and a stepped-up fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU). All these achievements were possible thanks to close regional cooperation as well as to the reinforced capacities in the EU and in the neighbouring countries of the Mediterranean region. Despite improvements in fisheries management, the Mediterranean remains in a critical state and further action is urgently needed to secure the future of fishing communities. In order not to lose momentum, the high-level conference will take stock of the common achievements and renew the commitment to live up to the full promises of MedFish4Ever.

Illegal migration, fisheries control, maritime surveillance, environmental protection, oil spill response are just some of the challenges the coast guards have to deal with in their daily work. The eighth Mediterranean Coast Guard Functions Forum plenary meeting held in Casablanca on 12-13 May 2019, addressed some of these issues and highlighted the importance of close cooperation among Coast Guards.

Representatives from the participant countries (Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey) and organisations (European Commission, EFCA, EMSA, Frontex, INTERPOL) agreed on the need to adopt a common approach in enforcing international conventions and instruments. The first step is to share information and best practices among European Coast Guard Functions Forum, Black Sea Cooperation forum, Atlantic Coast Guard Forum and Asian Coast Guard Agencies. A useful cooperation tool would be to develop guidelines to better support the implementation of sea basin and sub sea-basin strategies and initiatives.

Knowledge is best spread though participating in trainings and exchange programs organised by national maritime authorities in the region. A dedicated workshop on multipurpose operations will be co-organised with the EU coast Guard Agencies in spring 2020.

The call opened the 4th of April 2019 and it is classified as a Bio-based Industries Coordination and Support action (BBI-CSA)

CSA: actions consisting primarily of accompanying measures such as standardisation, dissemination, awareness-raising and communication, networking, coordination or support services, policy dialogues and mutual learning exercises and studies, including design studies for new infrastructure, and may also include complementary activities of networking and coordination between programmes in different countries.

BLUE ECONOMY TOPIC: Clusters

The specific challenge is to design the appropriate tools and system to build the capacity of SME clusters so that they can train SMEs to devise excellent projects that are scalable, investment ready and which convey these qualities to potential investors.

Identify possible systems for enabling SME clusters to set up a platform where SME entrepreneurs in the bio-based industry and investors can exchange expertise and business opportunities that could lead to successful cooperation. The scope includes the necessary steps to ‘train the trainers’ as well as practical steps SMEs can use when preparing and presenting projects with a high level of investment readiness and building the capacity of SME clusters to build links with investors.

Proposals should devise a framework that can be used to select the best projects through a competition in which investors evaluate and select winning SME proposals at regional level. If the winner’s reward is a cash prize, its value is not an eligible cost in the framework of the grant agreement.

Proposals should also set the basis for a European final of regional winners, and hence, proposers should link up with relevant and interested regional authorities.

The Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) will set up an industry and market expert group from among its members to provide expertise on the implementation and follow-up of the different tasks and help organise meetings. This expert group is not to be a part of the proposal, but will be offered to the project consortium to assist as needed.

The call opened the 4th of April 2019 and it is classified as a Bio-based Industries Research & innovation actions (BBI-RIA).

RIA: are actions primarily consisting of activities aiming to establish new knowledge and/or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. For this purpose they may include basic and applied research, technology development.

BLUE ECONOMY TOPIC: Marine Litter

Microorganisms and/or enzymes can be applied to biodegrade/decompose plastic waste, one of the major threats to our ecosystem. This is a key focus area to apply the concept of the circular economy, besides changing human behaviour and production systems.

Scope: Select and apply the appropriate microorganisms and/or enzymes to address one or both of the following issues:

▪ convert waste streams containing non-biodegradable polymers;

▪ remove non-biodegradable polymers from the environment.

Proposals may include tailored microorganisms and/or enzymes for co-digestion or co-fermentation of different feedstock, provided that the developed solutions result in sufficient yields in terms of: (i) breaking down the feedstock; and/or (ii) conversion into valuable products.

Proposals should address all requirements for RIA as shown in Table 3, pp.24-25, in the Introduction of the Annual Work plan 20199. The technology readiness level (TRL) at the end of the project should be 4-5 for the bio-based value chain in question. Proposals should clearly state the starting and end TRLs of the key technology or technologies targeted in the project. Industry participation in the project would be considered as an added value

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